Anti-Griefing System

On August 14th, 2016, the highly anticipated Anti Griefing update went live. EMC's anti-griefing system is designed to prevent griefers from breaking blocks without the owner's permission. If someone does try to break a player's block without permission, the block will be protected, and both players will receive an warning. The anti-griefing system is available in the Frontier and Wastelands (with limits) worlds. To learn about Town's separate protection system, see the Residences page.

Most decorative blocks and tile entity blocks (e.g. paintings) are always protected. However, common blocks like Dirt, Cobblestone and sand are not protected by default when placed by a player.

If you are building something and you want to ensure that all your placed blocks are protected then please enable Build Mode. To toggle Build Mode on and off, use the command /buildmode. It is default off every time you log in. You can also specifically turn it on and off by specifying either option. Example: /buildmode on would ensure that Build Mode will be turned on.

Any blocks which you place while you have Build Mode enabled are automatically protected. Note: liquids (lava and water) as well as crops are not protected. You should only enable Build Mode when you are building outposts or other structures - if you're mining or traveling between areas, please do not enable it (disable it if you enabled it) - otherwise you'll be unintentionally making it harder for other players to mine, travel or build in those areas.

NOTICE: Build mode is not usable in the Wastelands, as you should not be creating permanent structures there. However, the uncommon blocks, including the decorative and high-value items, will automatically become your property when placed and are also protected from being griefed. If you must build a temporary structure in the Wastelands, use uncommon blocks (see further down for a complete list).

Blocks which you place while in build mode cannot be broken by players who do not have your permission, TNT, nor creeper explosions. However, if you want to prevent players taking items out of containers such as chests, you still need to lock them with a lock sign (learn more about these on the Locking Items page). Other players aren't able to use lock signs on containers which you place while in Build Mode. Players are still able to use items placed in build mode - for example, they're able to open and close doors. Animals you spawn using spawn eggs aren't protected.

By default, your protected blocks can be broken by your friends (learn about this on the Friends System wiki page), people currently in a group with you and people you or your friends have vouched for. If you would like to restrict who is able to break your blocks further, you can do so in the anti-grief section of /settings. If you would like to completely disable group members from breaking each others blocks as a result of being in the same group of each other and you are the leader of the group, use /gr blockbreak.

A vouch is a way of giving someone temporary permission to break your or one of your friends' protected blocks. Each vouch lasts 30 minutes, but will expire early if you vouch on behalf of a friend who is offline and that friend connects to the SMP or the person who you are vouching for disconnects from the SMP. You cannot vouch on behalf of friends who are currently online (They can control their own vouches).

To vouch for someone to break your blocks, use /vouch [player name]

To vouch for someone to break one of your friend's blocks, use /vouch [player name] [friend's name]. You can only do this if your friends haven't disabled 'friend vouches' in their Player Settings.

It is against EMC rules to vouch for someone on behalf of a friend with the knowledge that they intend to grief that friend's builds, and will be dealt with as such. Vouches are also logged for Staff reference.

Am I allowed to break unprotected blocks that were placed by another player?(top)

No. Griefing is still against EMC's rules. If it was obviously player built, leave it alone! The system is here to prevent you from doing something you're not supposed to and covers 95% of the issues. If you find a corner case that goes around the system, that does not mean it is ok and you will be punished if you abuse it.

If you want to place blocks which should not be protected then you can turn off block protection by using the command /noprotectmode. When this is active it will show recurring warnings and every block you place while this mode is active won't be protected, no matter what kind of block you place (common or uncommon).

The so called uncommon blocks are blocks which get protected by default. It doesn't matter if you use /buildmode or not, and this protection even applies if you use these in the Wastelands (where you cannot use /buildmode).

Here is a list of all blocks which will be automatically protected when you place them:

If you have already have a build in the Frontier which is not (fully) protected and you're not exactly looking forward to rebuilding the whole thing then you can request Senior Staff to help you out. It will cost you 10,000r per selection, up to a maximum charge of 50,000r per player per area (the larger the building, the more work Senior Staff would have so the costs would go up).